How did the vote to create a union in an Amazon plant in Alabama turn out?

70% of valid votes said "no" when the union entered the Bessemer, Alabama plant. The disputed result

An Amazon warehouse (LaPresse / Andrea Alfano) The workers of the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against the union's entry into the plant, with an overwhelming result of 70% valid votes for "no". The turnout was not very high: of the approximately 5,800 workers with the right to vote, 3,215 expressed it (about 55.4%). The party of the opposites collected 1,798 adhesions, exceeding the threshold of 1,608 to decree the result. Thus, the second attempt by a trade union to enter Amazon, after the failed one in Delaware in 2014, was rejected. The 505 contested ballots would not be enough for the "unionists" to overturn the result, adding them to their 738 votes.

The the workers' association, which could not make propaganda in the company, challenged the verdict, announcing an appeal to the national council for trade union relations (Nlrb). Amazon allegedly used all kinds of means to influence employee votes, according to them: mandatory meetings, flyers to vote "no", posting anti-union posters even in the bathroom, sending messages. The company allegedly pressured the postal service to install a mailbox outside the plant, as revealed by the Washington Post (by Jeff Bezos), in order to exercise authority over the vote. He also allegedly asked the county to speed up traffic lights in the area. During the red, trade unionists approached waiting workers, as The Verge explains. The measure, however, dates back to December, while the campaign for the vote began in February.

For this reason the union speaks of "gross and blatantly illegal" actions, "gaslight on its employees" and "corruption of the vote" by Amazon. The company, for its part, minimizes the votes in favor of the union of workers to "less than 16%" (of total employees). "Amazon did not win", says the company: "They are the workers who have chosen to vote against", claiming that they have created "500 thousand new jobs since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic" and that "in America there are still 40 million people earning less than a starting salary at Amazon, ”based on $ 15 an hour. In a press conference, workers in favor of the company said they "have a table with the company to talk to the management and change what is needed".

Great attention on a global level was focused on the Bessemer vote and the national strike of Amazon workers in Italy also had a wide echo up to Seattle. US President Joe Biden himself had discouraged any employer from interfering in the election, without naming Amazon. In addition, the trade unionists had received the support of Bernie Sanders and Senator Mark Pocan, in the diatribe on the working conditions of drivers, forced to urinate in bottles due to the fast pace of work for home deliveries.


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